BradG
Member
I noticed littlemisscreative's post about custom center bands so I thought id share this with you.
A while back I went through a phase of making rings from coins. some of the middle eastern and far east coins are beautiful, and too small to be made into a ring. but they are big enough to fashion into a center band for a truely unique pen.
Here's my process:
buy a bag of coins and pick one out which has detailing which appeals around the outside edge
Drill the center out. the size of this hole goes a long way in determining the final size of the ring.
This is a dapping block. it's used to hammer things into a dome shape. I have a hydraulic press so I used that, but it can be done in a vice also.
Press to this shape
Place it onto a jewellers steel mandrel. these are used for straightening out bent rings and making them a little larger by working them down the taper.
heat the coin until it glows with a blow torch, and begin working the coin with a soft hammer such as copper or weighted leather. Depending on what way around the coin is on the mendrel (Flange pointing in or out) will determine if you end up stretching it down the mandrel more as you hammer it, or if you're hammering it flat.
I give mine a rough polish so I can see what i'm working with
and then take to the grinder to profile the edges
From there, another polish.
And one finished ring with arabic script.
here's a couple of other finished coins
A while back I went through a phase of making rings from coins. some of the middle eastern and far east coins are beautiful, and too small to be made into a ring. but they are big enough to fashion into a center band for a truely unique pen.
Here's my process:
buy a bag of coins and pick one out which has detailing which appeals around the outside edge
Drill the center out. the size of this hole goes a long way in determining the final size of the ring.
This is a dapping block. it's used to hammer things into a dome shape. I have a hydraulic press so I used that, but it can be done in a vice also.
Press to this shape
Place it onto a jewellers steel mandrel. these are used for straightening out bent rings and making them a little larger by working them down the taper.
heat the coin until it glows with a blow torch, and begin working the coin with a soft hammer such as copper or weighted leather. Depending on what way around the coin is on the mendrel (Flange pointing in or out) will determine if you end up stretching it down the mandrel more as you hammer it, or if you're hammering it flat.
I give mine a rough polish so I can see what i'm working with
and then take to the grinder to profile the edges
From there, another polish.
And one finished ring with arabic script.
here's a couple of other finished coins
